22-letter words containing a, n, t, r
- to bend over backwards — If you say that someone is bending over backwards to be helpful or kind, you are emphasizing that they are trying very hard to be helpful or kind.
- to cast your mind back — If you cast your mind back to a time in the past, you think about what happened then.
- to cast your net wider — If you cast your net wider, you look for or consider a greater variety of things.
- to draw someone's fire — If you draw fire from someone, you cause them to shoot at you, for example because they think that you are threatening them.
- to drop someone a line — If you drop someone a line, you write to them.
- to lead someone astray — If you are led astray by someone or something, you behave badly or foolishly because of them.
- to make the front page — if something 'makes the front page' it is printed on the first page of a newspaper
- to overplay one's hand — If someone overplays their hand, they act more confidently than they should because they believe that they are in a stronger position than they actually are.
- to swallow one's pride — If you swallow your pride, you decide to do something even though you think it will cause you to lose some respect.
- to twist someone's arm — If you twist someone's arm, you persuade them to do something.
- to whom it may concern — salutation in a letter
- toey as a roman sandal — very anxious
- total allergy syndrome — a condition in which a person suffers from a large number of symptoms that are claimed to be caused by allergies to various substances used or encountered in modern life
- trade descriptions act — In Britain, the Trade Descriptions Act or the Trades Descriptions Act is a law designed to prevent companies from presenting their goods or services in a dishonest or misleading way.
- trans-siberian railway — a railway in S Russia, extending from Moscow to Vladivostok on the Pacific: constructed between 1891 and 1916, making possible the settlement and industrialization of sparsely inhabited regions. Length: 9335 km (5800 miles)
- transactional analysis — a form of individual or group psychotherapy focusing on social interactions, psychological games, and analysis of relationships as persons shift among the roles of parent, child, and adult. Abbreviation: TA.
- transformational rules — rules that specify in purely syntactic terms a method by which theorems may be derived from the axioms of a formal system
- transient program area — (operating system) (TPA) The region of memory CP/M set aside for user programs.
- transition probability — the probability of going from a given state to the next state in a Markov process.
- transition temperature — Physics. a temperature at which a substance undergoes some abrupt change in its properties, as when it passes from the normal to the superconducting state.
- transposing instrument — a musical instrument played at a pitch different from that indicated in the score.
- trichlorofluoromethane — chlorotrifluoromethane.
- trifluorochloromethane — chlorotrifluoromethane.
- trigonometric equation — an equation involving trigonometric functions of unknown angles, as cos B = ½.
- turn one's hand to sth — If you turn your hand to something such as a practical activity, you learn about it and do it for the first time.
- turn someone's stomach — If you say that something turns your stomach or makes your stomach turn, you mean that it is so unpleasant or offensive that it makes you feel sick.
- twenty-first amendment — an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1933, providing for the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment, which had outlawed the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages.
- twenty-third amendment — an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1961, allowing District of Columbia residents to vote in presidential elections.
- unconventional warfare — warfare that is conducted within enemy lines through guerrilla tactics or subversion, usually supported at least in part by external forces.
- under no circumstances — not for any reason
- under starter's orders — (of horses in a race) awaiting the start signal
- unemployment insurance — a government program that provides a limited number of payments to eligible workers who are involuntarily unemployed.
- unidirectional current — direct current
- unilateral disarmament — disarmament, especially nuclear disarmament, carried out by one state on its own
- unitarian universalism — a North American liberal religious denomination in the Judeo-Christian heritage, formed in 1961 by the merger of the Unitarians, organized in 1825, and the Universalists, organized in 1793.
- united empire loyalist — any of the American colonists who settled in Canada during or after the War of American Independence because of loyalty to the British Crown
- universal postal union — an international organization, formed in Bern, Switzerland (1875), that administers and regulates international postal service. Abbreviation: UPU.
- universal product code — a bar code that indicates price, product classification, etc., and can be read electronically, as at checkout counters in supermarkets. Abbreviation: UPC.
- university of michigan — (body, education) A large cosmopolitan university in the Midwest USA. Over 50000 students are enrolled at the University of Michigan's three campuses. The students come from 50 states and over 100 foreign countries. 70% of the University's students graduated in the top 10% of their high school class. 90% rank in the top 20% of their high school class. 60% of the students receive financial aid. The main Ann Arbor Campus lies in the Huron River valley, 40 miles west of Detroit. The campus boasts 2700 acres with 200 buildings, six million volumes in 23 libraries, nine museums, seven hospitals, hundreds of laboratories and institutes, and over 18000 microcomputers.
- university of tasmania — (body, education)
- unprofessional conduct — activity that is contrary to the accepted code of conduct of a profession
- unsaturated production — Unsaturated production is the production of smaller, unsaturated hydrocarbons from saturated hydrocarbons, for example producing alkenes such as ethane and propene.
- upright vacuum cleaner — a vacuum cleaner that is tall rather than wide
- urban development zone — an area that is designated as being a site for urban development
- urban district council — a council of an urban district that, in conjunction with a county council, has responsibilities for local government issues
- user network interface — (communications, networking) (UNI) An interface point between ATM end users and a private ATM switch, or between a private ATM switch and the public carrier ATM network. The physical and protocol specifications for UNIs are defined by the ATM Forum's UNI documents, which allow for various types of physical interfaces. See also: NNI
- valencia simple tasker — (operating system) (VSTa) A small microkernel based Unix-like operating system, taking ideas from QNX and Plan 9, available under GPL.
- van der waals equation — an equation of state relating the pressure, volume, and absolute temperature of a gas, taking into account the finite size of the molecules and the attractive force between them.
- verification principle — (in the philosophy of the logical positivists) the doctrine that nontautologous statements are meaningful only if it is in principle possible to establish empirically whether they are true or false
- vibration white finger — a condition affecting workers using vibrating machinery, which causes damage to the blood vessels and nerves of the fingers and leads to a permanent loss of feeling